Recent newspaper
accounts of our operations for recapture of the Philippines have
included photographs of and brief references to the "concrete
battleship" Fort Drum, which is located on the rock called El Fraile
in the wide channel south of Corregidor.

As Fort Drum is the
only harbor or coast defense fortification in which we have made use
of steel turrets, it is of special interest to learn how they
performed while the Japs were attacking Corregidor and the other
fortified islands (Forts Hughes, Drum, and Frank) at the entrance to
Manila Bay.

During our defense
of Bataan and Corregidor in 1942, the enemy concentrated fire on
Fort Drum and Fort Frank, starting about February 15 with 105 and
150mm shells and in April with240mm shells. It has been reported
that in one day Fort Drum received over 1,000 direct hits on its
deck; that its cage mast was hit several times rendering useless the
depression position finder on top; that all antiaircraft guns were
destroyed; and that over 15 feet of the reinforced concrete deck was
whittled away.

Despite this
terrific pounding Fort Drum suffered few casualties and the four
14-inch turret guns were never out olfaction and were still firing
effectively 5 minutes before the surrender of Corregidor, although
all other guns on the fortified islands, at one time or another,
were rendered inoperative.

It may be
interesting to note that the inception of Fort Drum was contained in
a letter dated Corregidor Island, July 18, 1908,which I sent to
Major G. P. Howell, District Engineer in Manila. The text of the
letter follows:

Corregidor
Island,
July 18, 1908,

Major G. P.
Howell,
District Engineer in Manila.

Dear Sir,

In
connection with Mr. E. B. Thomson's report relative to the construction of
an artificial island just south of El Fraile, I beg to submit the following
plan as an alternative, which I believe would prove vastly cheaper and no
less effective.*Reprinted from the Military Engineer by permission.

PROPOSED
FORTIFICATIONS
El Fraile Manila Bay

From a
glance at the print entitled 'Entrance to Manila Bay, approximate distances
from El Fraile' the following facts are apparent.

1st. That
the channel north of Corregidor Island can be so well defended by open
batteries on Corregidor as to force any attempt at entrance by a hostile
fleet to be made through the wide channel to the south.

2d. That a
battleship passing between Corregidor and Carabao Islands will of necessity
come within effective range of one or the other, but no ship would attempt
to make the entrance by daylight.

3d. That the
distance between Corregidor and Carabao is too great for batteries on these
islands to prevent the entrance of hostile ships at night.

We may
therefore conclude that it is necessary to mount heavy guns at some
intermediate point. The problem is thus reduced to one of two alternatives:
to build an artificial island, or place guns upon El Fraile.

The plans
and sections are drawn to a very small scale and no attempt is made to show
details. It is merely desired to set forth something in tangible form,
subject to such modifications as further study and investigation may
indicate desirable. The features contemplated are briefly as follows:

Armament:

Four 12-inch
guns on Navy carriages in two two-gun mushroom turrets of cast nickel-steel
from 21 to 24 inches thick on the sides and tapering to a thickness of 8 to
10 inches on top; these two turrets to be mounted on a concrete structure
containing rooms for personnel, ammunition power, etc.

Protection of ammunition, etc.:

Horizontal,
30 feet of concrete.

Vertical, 10
feet of concrete.

Ammunition storage:

200 rounds
per gun.

Power:

The power to
be supplied by gasoline driven generators of total capacity about 350 K.W.
sufficient for lighting, including searchlights and for driving the motors
for traversing the turrets, elevating the guns, running ammunition hoists
(Navy type), operating the telescopic rammers, air compressors, ventilating
fans, pumps, and cooking stoves.

Interior Economy:

The
structure is divided into two stories and each story into several rooms and
passages by reinforced concrete floors and partitions."The first floor
contains the magazines, power rooms, machine shop, storage battery and
storage rooms for water and gasoline. To protect against accidents from
gasoline fumes the magazines are completely cut off from the power rooms by
a concrete wall. The magazines are accessible by ladder through the turret
wells, the other rooms through the machinery well; ammunition is brought
into the magazines by means of a chain hoist in the ammunition well.

The second
floor contains the plotting rooms, office, guardroom, storerooms,
lavatories, officer’s quarters, and quarters, mess room, and kitchen for a
complement of 120enlisted men. There is access to the turrets and to the
lower floor by means of ladders and to the top of the fort by two stairways.

During the
times of peace the garrison would live on Corregidor and go to El Fraile
only for drills, a guard being maintained at all times and living in a shack
on top of the Fort. During war the island should be regularly garrisoned,
the troops living in tents on top of the fort except during action or storm,
when they should be quartered below.

Water
Supply:

The main
water storage is on the lower floor and from here water is pumped as needed
into a small tank on top. It is probable that an artesian well could be
drilled giving an ample supply for all needs. A small distilling plant
should be provided.

Ammunition Service:

Projectiles
are carried to the handling room beneath the turret by overhead trolley. The
cartridges arc shoved through a small trap door to prevent any explosion in
the turret or handling room from entering the cartridge rooms. From the
handling room the charge is raised to the breech of the gun bemeans of the
standard type of Navy ammunition hoists, and is rammed by the Navy
telescopic rammer.

Range
Finding and Fire Control:

An observing
station of cast nickel steel is placed between the turrets with the
observing slot at sufficient elevation to see over both turrets. The top or
roof of the station is supported by steel plates radial to the axis of the
observing instrument. This station should be made as small as possible so as
to minimize the effect of the blast. This station might be made oblong in
plan so as to accommodate two depression instruments and cover both channels
at once.

To prevent
the gun captains from losing their targets it would be advisable to furnish
them with both range and azimuth from the B. C. Station.

Note: The
present plan for torpedo defense may be carried out by placing observing
stations on top between the B. C. Station and the turrets and the casemate
apparatus located on the 1st and2d floors. This is in part shown.

Cost:

It is not
possible without further data to make even an approximate estimate of the
total cost. The concrete would amount to about 1,000 cu. yds. more per gun
than in our open batteries or in all about 26,000 cu. yds. which at cost of
$12 per yard would amount to $312,000.

The armor
being cast nickel steel because economy of weight is not necessary would be
much less expensive than the same protection on shipboard when steel
forgings must be used.

Roughly we
might estimate the total cost at $1,000,000 or$250,000 per gun in all
respects complete.

Note: I deem
it not only desirable but imperative that whatever plan be adopted it should
contemplate both all around fire and protection.

Very respectfully,

JOHN J.
KINGMAN,
1st Lieut.,
Corps of Engineers/'

The final design
provided for 14 inch guns and armor plate in lieu of cast steel
turrets. The turrets were placed at different elevations to permit
the east turret guns to fire over the west turret. A cage mast was
used for observation and fire control instead of steel cupolas
between the turrets. While the basic conception remained unchanged,
even to the caretakers’ shack on top of the fort, the final design
included numerous other improvements over my original sketch plans
referred to in the above quoted letter and reproduced with this
article.

One important and
fortunate change was the increase from 10 feet to20 feet in the
thickness of the reinforced concrete roof, as this enabled Fort Drum
to weather the concentrated and long continued pounding it received
from Japs from about February 15 to May 6,1942.

Although the cost
of Fort Drum did materially exceed my too modest estimate of
$1,000,000, still, as compared to the cost of the previously
contemplated artificial island, the "concrete battleship" did
assuredly "prove vastly cheaper and no less effective." In fact open
batteries on an artificial island, located as had been proposed,
would probably not have long remained in action under such shelling.

All Rights Reserved
-
The 'letter' is not an exact copy - I have copied the text as
cited in BG Kingman's article, but have taken liberties with the
format. - Ed

This websiteis privately supported by The Corregidor Historic
Society, CAMS Bay Guild and a group of like-minded
individuals who believe that websites are the History and
Heritage Resources of the Future. We seek donations.